collaboration and globalization e-book

Collaboration:The key to connecting your Professional Services firm for growth and global success

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Collaboration: The key to connecting your Professional Services firm for growth and global success deltek.com2

Leaders within today’s Professional Services industry are taking advantage of collaborative efforts in order to not just survive the current and future market conditions, but to ensure long term growth. That’s because today there are new and dynamic opportunities that have never been seen before.

Yet, collaboration from within an organization or across multiple firms may struggle to occur organically. Instead, savvy firms are putting their focus on key tools that enhance and nurture modern collaboration techniques. Today, specifically-designed project collaboration tools and comprehensive web-based ERP solutions exist to enhance and nurture connectivity in Professional Services firms’ changing workforce—and the firms most poised and hungry for success are capitalizing on them.

Collaboration should be a priority that is universal across all Professional Services organizations. For example, Architecture and Engineering firms are now, more than ever, engaging in joint ventures with other firms in order to build structures that meet all of their client’s design needs. In Marketing and Communications, firms are working together to expand their service lines to their customers. And in other Professional Services firms, there is now a need for enhanced interaction with the client in order to maintain customer satisfaction and gain repeat business. In all these cases, collaboration is needed to get the job done.

Collaboration: The key to connecting your Professional Services firm for growth and global success3

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So what exactly can collaboration do for your firm? Other than promoting a congenial atmosphere, strong collaboration actually has tangible benefits that can equate to money in your firm’s pocket. Even simple collaborative efforts can raise efficiencies within your firm up to 25%, by saving your employees time and energy. Similarly, today’s competitive Professional Services landscape and changing expectations for today’s modern workforce show that collaboration isn’t really even optional anymore—without collaborative processes and the visibility provided by connected systems, your firm is destined to get left behind. When all this is combined with today’s new teaming opportunities, one thing is for sure: collaboration is imperative to a firm’s agility, growth and survival.

On the other side of things, when a firm is already positioned to expand, collaboration plays a vital role in the process of globalization. Besides helping organizations overcome the challenges of securing new markets, collaborative tools and integrated ERP systems provide one version of the truth which is indispensable when working across international borders. Ultimately, collaborative tools give organizations the boost to outperform in any market condition.

In this comprehensive e-book, Deltek takes you through the reasons for improving collaboration with performance-driving ERP and social tools. Split into two parts discussing how enhanced connectivity can drive growth and the role of globalization, this e-book provides all the information that is key to your firm’s success in current and future Professional Services’ markets.

Why integrated ERP systems will lead to success» Click here to learn more

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Put simply, collaboration is the surest way to deliver margin and drive growth from within your firm. Think of it this way: each of your individual employees may have a specific talent or knowledge-base, but they can’t grow your company as a whole if their talents are isolated from others. That’s why success-driven firms like yours need to put an emphasis on getting your team to work together. Something as simple as creating a more collaborative workforce ensures that your entire organization’s talents, skills and ideas are focused towards a single goal—driving achievement across your enterprise.



Part I: Collaborating to Innovate and Drive Growth

1. Raise Efficiencies by 20-25%: Put Your Focus Back on Profit-driving Tasks

2. The Art of Competition: Reach More Customers and Get Richer Insight

3. Your Changing Business and Workforce: The Right Tools are No Longer Just “Nice to Have”

4. Clients Should be Your Number One Priority: Deliver Full-service Offerings by Teaming Up

5. Agility through Real-time Data: The Source for Successfully Taking on New Opportunities and Improving Profitability

Part II: Thinking Global

1. The Challenge of Securing Value: Adding Organizational Visibility to Achieve Growth

2. Success Requires One Version of the Truth: The Result is Better, More Informed Decision-making

3. The Need for Accurate KPI Identification: Improving Your Core Business Processes on a Continual Basis

4. Be the ‘Best of the Best’: Gain the Ability to Outperform

Contents:



Raise Efficiencies by 20-25%: Put Your Focus Back on Profit-driving Tasks According to a July, 2012 report issued by the McKinsey Global Institute, the improved communication and interaction that comes as a result of utilizing social technologies could raise efficiencies throughout an entire organization—regardless of the firm’s size or employee locations.

“The McKinsey Global Institute finds that twice as much potential value lies in using social tools to enhance communication, knowledge sharing and collaboration within and across enterprises,” the report states. “By fully implementing social technologies, companies have an opportunity to raise the productivity of interaction workers—high-skill knowledge workers, including managers and professionals—by 20 to 25%.”

The report continues, “The average interaction worker spends an estimated 28% of the workweek managing email, and nearly 20% looking for internal information or tracking down colleagues who can help with specific tasks. But when companies use social media internally, messages become content; a searchable record of knowledge can reduce, by as much as 35%, the time employees spend searching for company information.”

“The social economy: Unlocking value and productivity through social technologies”Report, McKinsey Global Institute, July 2012» Click to learn more

Part I. Collaborating to Innovate and Drive Growth

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http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/mgi/research/technology_and_innovation/the_social_economy



The Art of Competition: Reach More Customers and Get Richer Insight True, organizations around the globe are adapting social interaction and collaborative tools to coincide with the increasing opportunities of social media. But to what extent?

In the same 2012 McKinsey report, experts state that an estimated 75% of enterprise-level organizations will adopt a social collaboration platform in 2013. With the majority of firms realizing that social collaboration tools are a requirement for successful performance in today’s global markets, it’s imperative that your firm stay in line—or better yet, ahead—of the competition.

“In a few short years, social technologies have given social interactions the speed and the scale of the Internet,” the report says. “Companies use them in new ways to reach consumers in new ways too; by tapping into the conversations, organizations can generate richer insights and create precisely targeted messages and offers.”

Trends in Social CollaborationWatch the interview with Michael Fauscette, Group VP, IDC

» Click to view

Trends in Social CollaborationWatch the interview with China Martens, Analyst, Forrester Research

» Click to view


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Your Changing Business and Workforce: The Right Tools are No Longer Just “Nice to Have”As personal lives become more social, inevitably, so does business. And in fact, employees themselves are demanding more collaborative social platforms that can help them become more efficient in their jobs. Similar to the previous point, as business processes advance to the speed of the internet, so should your communication and collaboration.

Likewise, within the Professional Services industry especially, the changing workforce means more employees than ever before are working remotely. With a large portion of your staff spread out between locations, a higher level of collaboration can no longer be viewed as just a ‘nice thing to have’. Now, it’s a ‘must have’ for any successful enterprise.

Read how ECOM improved its team collaboration through KONA» Click to learn more


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http://www.deltek.com/products/~/media/PDF/Case%20Studies/Kona/ECom-Kona-CS.ashx



Clients Should be Your Number One Priority: Deliver Full-service Offerings by Teaming UpWith an uncertain economy and increased competition on the horizon, top customer service and responsiveness is the most certain way to acquire and retain clients. Yet, putting your clients at the center of your plans can only be accomplished by recognizing what your clients want and expect from your firm. One example of this comes from the Marketing and Communications sector, where it is now common for agencies to deliver ‘full-service’ offerings—i.e., providing Public Relations, digital and design services from under a single, umbrella offering. Likewise, Architecture and Engineering firms are moving beyond providing one or two specialties to offering their clients a full host of engineering, design and tactical consulting services. This attracts potential clients who don’t want—or can’t afford to—hire a number of AE consultancies for a single job. However, it’s not always possible for a single Professional Serices firm to directly deliver these specialist, highly-skilled services from within their existing employee base; instead, savvy firms in this sector are increasingly partnering with other firms to deliver additional value to their clients.

Oddly enough, in today’s business landscape, this can also mean collaborating with a competitor to service a client need. Given that improving customer satisfaction is high on the list of top opportunities for today’s Professional Services firms, partnering with a competitor can ensure that your firm is delivering the best job for your clients—offering a win-win to all.

Collaboration in the PR industry» Click here to read the blog


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However, to achieve this partnership, your firm has to first establish the right collaborative tools and ERP that can help you succeed. With the right system in place, Professional Services firms gain synergy on all levels and business processes become easy: you can budget, resource and report accordingly on team efforts. Moreover, with visibility-enhancing ERP, projects and clients can be planned and analyzed in ways that ensure maximum profitability for all parties involved.

Put it all together, and you have a recipe that ultimately strengthens your firm’s service to its clients. By collaborating with other firms with like-minded customer focus, your firm can then package a whole new offering that is more competitive and attractive to buyers in the market.

Collaboration in the Engineering sector » Click to read the blog


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Agility through Real-time Data: The Source for Successfully Taking on New Opportunities and Improving Profitability In today’s Professional Services marketplace, having ‘agility’ is tantamount to being profitable. However, the idea of agility means to be able to adjust quickly to changing conditions, which can’t be done without solutions that empower collaboration.

Let’s put this into a real-world example. If you need to call on expertise from employee data taken in London when you’re in Germany, what’s the one thing that can ensure you’re working with accurate, applicable information? The answer, is that the data is all delivered in real-time—something that can’t occur without a unifying ERP system.

Firms that can quickly respond to opportunities and react to change gain a number of benefits: they grow revenue, create happy clients and adapt to challenges that could threaten profitability. But again, the right software is key to this position.


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Look at this second example. Agile firms can quickly identify relevant past client work to serve as an insight for new proposals, while making sure their pricing is still competitive. However, today’s Professional Services firms don’t have time for long, complicated data-mining—after all, your resources are needed for billable tasks.

Modern tools can easily and instantly transform all of a firm’s past and current work into meaningful, on-demand knowledge. It can even check to make sure the right resources are available for your client needs. Imagine the advantage a firm has if it can quickly respond to a new business opportunity with an immediate proposal—one that commits to both resources and timeline. Putting yourself in the client’s shoes, which firm would you choose?

Social collaboration tool KONAWatch Deltek’s Jeff Eckerle, Senior Director of Product Management talk about KONA» Click to view


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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Du_aFOQUic8



Part II: Thinking Global Without a doubt, the globalization of the economy is also driving collaboration efforts. That’s why paying attention to smart, social collaboration tools shouldn’t

end once you’ve begun your path to growth. Once your firm has expanded—be it through organic growth, mergers and acquisitions, or from joint ventures and partnerships—collaborative technologies become even more critical. In this section, we have itemized four major globalization factors that should encourage your Professional Services firm to ‘think collaboration’ in today’s international markets.

“Going Global with Your ERP”» Click to learn more

“Globalising your ERP”» Click to learn more

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The Challenge of Securing Value: Adding Organizational Visibility to Achieve GrowthIf you’re already a globalized Professional Services firm, or have plans for growth in the future, it’s important to remember: adding new geographies does not necessarily improve business performance. In fact, the biggest globalization challenge for PS firms is securing that added value as the company moves into new territories.

No matter which way you look at it, setting up in a new territory is a costly and risky exercise—not to mention, one that needs to be the result of informed decisions and an identified market opportunity. What’s more, any venture of this nature should be scalable, meaning you shouldn’t jump in headfirst and sink all your cash in setting up.

Collaboration can undoubtedly ease this start-up burden. For one thing, it changes the way you make use of your pre-existing team in established territories. Additionally, establishing how you work with others can help in those first few steps. Collaborating can assist in covering the ‘ground work’ of a new territory until you can tangibly see the early success needed to warrant further investment.

Ready to grow from here? With Deltek it’s in hand.» Click to view

Part II. Thinking Global

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When it comes to a challenge of this scale, Professional Services firms can often find it daunting to pinpoint an answer. However, securing value throughout your firm and into new markets is as simple as unifying your organization. Deltek’s white paper The Hunt for Profitability: How the Marcom Industry Strives to Increase Profits, researches this exact topic. In doing so, the report concludes that a Professional Services firm’s growth and success stems from its people, work, time and financial results being unified in a way that provides visibility across the entire organization.

Moreover, internal collaboration—i.e., sharing resources, reporting and analysis data—not only saves time for your firm, but also makes the collective effort more reliable. This allows better decisions to be made from an executive level. With this in mind, you can see that a major component of securing value in the Professional Services’ landscape—even in new markets—is deploying the right technology and collaborative tools to drive your firm to global success.

The Hunt for Profitability: How the Marcom Industry Strives to Increase Profits» Click to learn more


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Success Requires One Version of the Truth: The Result is Better, More Informed Decision-makingOvercoming the main challenge of a globalized business is simple, yet takes the right tools and processes to deliver results. The answer lies in being able to operate your entire business under one version of the truth.

This means enabling everyone in your workforce to see and utilize the same data. Put into specific terms, it comes down to consolidating your business systems so that all staff members have a role-appropriate view of all entities, projects and teams.

In a January 2012 report entitled Market Overview: Project-Based ERP For Service Delivery Professionals, Forrester analyst China Martens confirms that disparate data systems are still a struggle for today’s Professional Services firms.

“Unfortunately, many service delivery organizations face the challenge that the [applications] they use to manage external projects aren’t tightly integrated with each other,” says Martens. “Different pieces of important project information reside in individual applications, such as customer relationship management, human capital management and financials. Organizations then face challenges with poor or little communication—flow of information back and forth—between those disparate systems.”

“Project-Based ERP For Service Delivery Professionals”» Click to read the Forrester Market Overview


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Despite the frequency of this occurrence, Martens also states that it’s not enough for service delivery professionals to merely expand—they also need to “think and act globally” in order to succeed.

“As service delivery organizations expand, they have more need to be able to run project management software across a variety of regions and be able to view their entire operation—potentially involving a variety of subsidiaries—as a single, global entity with shared customers, projects and employees.”

The only way to achieve this is by implementing an ERP with true, multi-language, multi-currency capabilities, so that everyone in the organization is reporting from one system. The result is not only improved collaboration, but greater visibility, increased executive overview and transparency and more informed decision-making for your organization as a whole.


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The Need for Accurate KPI Identification: Improving Your Core Business Processes on a Continual Basis As a globalized Professional Services firm looking to succeed, delivering true operational excellence can only happen with the right solution in place. Social tools and collaboration-driving ERP systems can do this by helping you identify the right Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for your firm—be it profit, scale, new technologies or revenue.

What’s more, by implementing a robust, globally-supportive ERP, you can provide the visibility into those specific metrics to actively manage your firm’s most unique and critical processes. The most common processes that are positively impacted by taking advantage of the right tools are ones surrounding resource management, project selection and execution, life cycle management and all financial transactions. Summed up, all the things that make a Professional Services firm function and operate competitively.


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Be the ‘Best of the Best’: Gain the Ability to OutperformWith the current economic outlook, the firms with a strong understanding and management of their KPIs will continue to outperform the market. In short, these are the firms that will solidify their status as the best of the best.

At IDC, the world’s premier global market intelligence firm, this statement translates to ‘performance is the focus.’ In the Successfully Managing a Consulting Business in Challenging Economic Times report issued by Michael Fauscette, Group Vice President for the firm’s Software Business Solutions business unit, a consistent focus on performance outweighs flashy trends on any day.

“Competitive advantage can come from a superior strategy like having a novel, go-to market approach,” Fauscette states. “But most often it comes from operational excellence.”

To ensure that your firm is consistently optimizing performance, collaborative efforts and solutions that streamline operations are vital. Without these tools and processes in place, your globalized competitors will continue to outperform you in the market—instead of the other way around.

“Successfully Managing a Consulting Business in Challenging Economic Times”» Click here to read the IDC report


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Conclusion As firms look to the next year and beyond to plan their strategies in the fight to remain competitive, one thing is clear. Those who collaborate on today’s advanced level of heightened communication and pay attention to the impacts of globalization will no doubt succeed where others might fail. For your firm, investing in the right technologies to drive that ‘next level’ of collaboration will result in delivering improved, long-term profit margins and growth. Whether it’s to connect your increasingly mobile workforce, meet the ever-demanding needs of your clients or unify your global enterprise, collaboration is the key to successfully profiting in today’s changing Professional Services marketplace.

Deltek is the leading global provider of enterprise software and information solutions for professional services firms and government contractors. For decades, we have delivered actionable insight that empowers our customers to unlock their business potential. 16,000 organizations and 2 million users in over 80 countries around the world rely on Deltek to research and identify opportunities, win new business, optimize resources, streamline operations, and deliver more profitable projects. Deltek – Know more. Do more.® deltek.com

© 2013 Deltek, Inc. All rights reserved. All referenced trademarks are the property of their respective owners.040213-v1

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